The ad finds seemingly real employees and customers of the high street chain, of all sexual identities mentioned above, discussing their favourite products directly to camera. While the brand’s intention seems to have been to proudly show their liberal credentials, the resulting spot is a frankly bizarre video that looks like something that would not look out of place on an Alan Partridge sketch.

Barely more than a minute long, "We’re Robert Dyas" gets off to a compelling start with an elevator music rendition of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, while the camera does a slow pan across the storefront. Inside we’re introduced to Marcus, who “works at Robert Dyas and is gay”, and says so as if he’s reading his lines off the camera operator’s forehead.

He then explains how he likes to show both gay and straight customers the shop’s “funky range of Christmas gifts”. This is quickly followed by a lingering, almost haunting, close-up of an inflatable minions doll. It only gets stranger from here.

There’s certainly a lot to discuss about this spot, not to mention the reaction it's received. The primary response to the ad seems to be simply confusion. While advertising doesn’t necessarily have a responsibility to make sense (for example, I can’t remember the last time I understood a perfume advert), Robert Dyas’ motive in producing the ad seems to be the biggest mystery of all. What were they thinking?

Looking at the response online, several theories abound. Some conspiracy-prone viewers have speculated that the ad might be intentionally bad, with Robert Dyas drumming up business by latching onto an existing internet meme.

Others have said the spot is rather ham-fistedly courting the "pink pound", in line with increasing corporate interest in LGBT people and spaces. Whatever the real answer, it’s the fact that the ad seems to have been conceived, written, shot and edited in about 12 minutes that makes the whole experience so brilliantly, cringe-inducingly funny.

While Robert Dyas may have not succeeded in knocking its festive competitors off the top spot, there’s no denying that its ad has got people talking. In an advertising season packed to the rafters with searingly sentimental, occasionally self-important campaigns, we ought to thank Robert Dyas for putting out something so willfully silly that it’s put a smile on everyone’s face (whether they meant to or not). All we have to do now is sit and back and wait for the inevitable parodies.

City A.M.'s opinion pages are a place for thought-provoking views and debate. These views are not necessarily shared by City A.M.